WW - Playing with the Camera Remote

Words

I realize that I haven't actually posted some content to this blog in a while. I tend to focus on pictures as of late, since that's becoming my favorite obsession hobby. So I thought I would actually sit down and write something...anything...hmm, what to write.

So my son is a terrible looser. He has bad sportsmanship. I hate that kind of behavior. Once he starts to loose he throws in the towel and runs off to cry. He wants to be competitive but cannot handle the defeat. Even if he wins 9 out of 10 games, that 10th game sends him into hysterics and we have to put away or turn off (Wii) the game until he calms down. My hubby and I had a long talk about how to handle this situation. I thought taking the hard line and making him finish the game, even though he was loosing, have him shake hands with his partner/s and say "Good Game" after every victory or defeat and explaining that for each time he had a tantrum for loosing, he will not have his game privileges for 1-2 days. My hubby thought that may not be the best way to handle this situation and instead cause my son to feel like if neither winning or loosing is going to be different than why strive to be the best, or better than you were before? I wanted to convey that playing the game is the fun part, not winning or loosing but I so see my Hubby's point about not wanting to stifle his drive to be better. How do you compromise? Should I enroll him in more team sports (even though he is terrible in PE and I get notes home from the teacher that he isn't playing nice), or should I try Karate for self-discipline or just assume he's 5 and he will grow out of it and do little to nothing?

Man this parenting thing is too hard. Anyone ever feel like they are in over their heads? My three year old is going thru the I-Wanna-Do-It-All-Myself phase where I cannot help her get dressed/buckled in/cut her food and it drives us batty cause it takes her so.freaking.long to do anything. But like I tell my kids, I gotta have patience too, this is how they learn...but man practicing what you preach is really difficult.

My youngest hit separation/stranger anxiety with a vengeance. All she wants is ME. All the time. I cannot put her down in the family room with her bazillion toys and dare walk into the kitchen where she can see me. She goes bezerk. My back is about to break. I cannot take the puckered up lip and the huge tears. This is a big change for me as my older daughter only wanted daddy. So I cannot say I am not liking being the favored one (its been a while since my son was a baby and he wanted his momma) but it would be nice to get a break once in a while and have her play with her siblings. That's why we have more than 1 kid, right? So they can entertain each other? I cannot imagine how people with LARGE families keep their sanity. I applaud you all.

And on one final note, my grandma has been in the hospital fighting pneumonia. That is the main reason I have been away from my blog and computers for the last few weeks. She was in CCU until yesterday and on a ventilator until Sunday at which time we decided it would be best to remove her from. She is holding steady since Sunday breathing on her own but she isn't very responsive. I think the next step is hospice. I wonder if she knows we were at her bedside all weekend? All her grandkids flew in to see her and we talked and told stories to her while she attempted to open her eyes to see us. I just hope she could feel all the love in that room for her. She is truly one of my most favorite people in all this world.

So that's all the goings-on in my life. Now you know why I stick to pictures?? :)

Weekly Winners

This is the earliest I am posting this on a Sunday morning so here's my winners from last week.

Rare moment with the older two.


Dress up.


Can you see me?


Sisterly love.


My tulips.


Pink Tree at my Mom's


Green light.


Helpers.

Theme Thursday - Before and After

I don't consider myself an expert with photo shop, its still a work in progress. But this week's theme is to show some before and after so here's my attempts at making my pictures better.

Here's a shot of my youngest on a new makeshift backdrop.



Here's my edit. I cropped, lightened and fixed the background. Then I used a cross-process color because I like this look. I also fixed the lens cap that she grabbed a hold of (luckily I was just practicing with these shots).



Here is one more. I thought this shot was cute of V but dark.



I lightened this one and sharpened it only. I liked the crop and colors so I left them pretty much as is.



So I will keep practicing with my edits and hopefully get better (and faster) with my processing.

(not so) WW - Passover Humor

By George....

I think she's got it!

Weekly Winners

Here are some of my favorites from this past week.



E poses for me in her petti.



The new baby face.



Girlie Feet.



Trying to use camera Raw.



Dreamy BW.



Happy Passover. Our Sedar plate.



Food face.



Silly man.



Silly Girl.



Full moon.

Theme Thursday - Spring

I am so happy to be able to post some spring pictures. I love the changing of the seasons. My girls and I went outside for a few minutes to admire the flowers. I wanted my older daughter to just smell them but instead she popped off one of my tulips. Oh well, it looks nice in my kitchen too!

She shared it with the baby for a brief moment before she snatched it back.

Then she showed it off to me.

Of course we had full sun when these were taken. I tried to get them to go to the backyard in the shade but they were not interested. Oh well, they are not terrible.

YAY for Spring!!

WW - In Bloom

Weekly Winners

Giddy Up


New Shoes


Wet Magnolia


Cherry


Me in the rearview X2


Yuck-o reflection


Goofy


Dressed up


Springtime

Great New Site for Photography and the Mom!

Come check it out.

Theme Thursday - Perfection

Perfection is something I obsess over strive for in my photos. It rarely happens. Usually something is off, lighting, focus, shutter speed. When I do manage to get a combo of these things right, then there could be something wrong with the subject I am shooting. I am not all that diligent about cleaning their faces before I run for the camera. My poor baby girl battles eczema around her face often. I use many of the healing and cloning techniques to make her face as close to perfect as I can. Take this before pic:

This shot isn't terrible. Its somewhat dark but she isn't blurry or running from me. But it has many imperfections. Here is what I did with it:

That's better! Of course I feel somewhat dishonest when I doctor up photos of the kids. I really don't want to erase the true state of my kids as they grow. I hold onto those memories in my photos. But occasionally its nice to dream that they are all perfect little angels, even though I know better!

WW-The Price of Learning how to Walk

Weekly Winners